April 2018 Weekend Rundown

[Chowseeker1999]

Spring is in the air! Where did you go in April?

Here’s a summary of the places we just visited combined into one place, in case it’s helpful for any of our FTC’ers heading north.

• Return of the Dragon - A return visit to the most fantastic Dim Sum we’ve had in the U.S.! Dragon Beaux [Thoughts + Pics]

• At Home and Underground - The Tasty Yakitori and Handmade Udon of Izakaya Rintaro [Thoughts + Pics]

• Delightful Spanish Cuisine & Tapas - Bellota [Thoughts + Pics]

• What Really Elevated Asian Food Can Taste Like - Benu [Thoughts + Pics]

• Great Cocktails, Cozy Atmosphere and Cuddling - Welcome to Trick Dog Airways - Trick Dog [Thoughts + Pics]

• Pure Pork Bone Ramen - The Silky, Smooth, Refined Tonkotsu Ramen at Ippudo S.F. [Thoughts + Pics]

• World-Class Tasting Menus (or the Greatest Lobster Dish I Have Ever Eaten!) - Saison [Thoughts + Pics]

• More Classic American Breakfast Goodness - Plow [Thoughts + Pics]

• Glorious Eclairs & the Banana Cream Chocolate Tart! Tartine Bakery [Thoughts + Pics]

• Legit Hong Kong BBQ - The Wonderful Crisped Roast Duck, Soy Sauce Chicken, and Luscious BBQ Pork Neck at Ming Kee Hong Kong BBQ [Thoughts + Pics]

Thanks again to all of the FTC’ers who gave us all of these great suggestions! (@BradFord @PorkyBelly @beefnoguy @robert @ipsedixit @Bookwich @Emglow101 @lectroid @SFDiner @js76wisco and many others!) You really made our trip!

[J_L]

Filer mignon (AKA work dinner cut), Nick & Stef’s…

Icing on the Cake ice cream, Baskin Robbins…

Shio Ramen, Yamadaya (Westwood)… Really nice chicken and fish broth, particularly fine with shrimp wontons!

Matcha soft serve on a waffle cone, at Matcha Cha (the new kid on the block on Sawtelle)…

[Haeldaur]

Tried somi somi in K town. Long line. honestly thought the ice cream itself was very mediocre and not flavorful. However, the bottom part with the chewy homemade cone was just delicious.

[Ns1]

Ok that Yamada pic looks pretty incredible.

[wienermobile]

Saturday afternoon at the County Line

[TheCookie]

@Ns1

Ok that Yamada pic looks pretty incredible.

They all do. But I’m in love with the Matcha photo.

[JeetKuneBao]

Everson Royce Bar

Monday’s are FREE fries with your cheeseburger. The fries are oddly reminiscent of McD’s. That is not a bad thing!

Cheeseburger. The minimalist. Not the best looking burger, but man this is pure beefy flavor.

Damn! My oh my! OMG! Good Lord!
These biscuits are really really good. Probably the best damn biscuits I ever had. Let me try and put it into words…crust, the exterior has a nice crunch but the interior is airy, these are hot straight from the oven served with some honey butter, it’s like a cousin of a French pastry, it’s just good man. Omakase me. This is some Gandalf Dumbledore level wizardy that went into making this.

Hui Tou Xiang

The Kimchi so damn good that Koreans come down here to buy. Subtle sweetness against the chile, garlic, and vinegar notes. If I wasn’t going to hit some golf balls in Ktown I would have bought a few jars home! Not sure if the sweet auntie I spoke to was the owner, but she said in Dongbei where she is from has a Korean population (or Koreans of Chinese descent).
These were happily refilled.

![image|375x500]

Seaweed and Cucumber apps. The price is a little more but makes up for it in quantity. All solid, but to my disappoint, Auntie said in Mandarin to me that she had to take out the garlic because of all the lao-wai’s and that actually she gets lots of lao-wai customers now. Thanks Lao-Wai’s this cucumber dish is suppose to be garlicky, vinegary, soy-y, and chile-y.

Pork Hui Tou’s. Other than the shape it tastes just like what a pork potsticker should be. Don’t get me wrong it is tasty. I like the stickers with a little more crisp.

Tomato Egg Noodle. Mmmm this is some straight up Grandma food. Order it!

Vegetarian “Pancake”.
Here’s a tip, I pretty much always order “vegetarian” at a Northern place. The 2 most popular fillings:

-Chinese leeks, egg, and tiny pieces of noodle

Or

-Mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, and other stuff I can’t name at the moment.

Lao Wai’s tend to overlook the veggie options. Skip the XLB’s and get the veggie dumps.

Even better ask your SGV friends if they know a granny or auntie who makes veggie dumplings (and other fillings) as a side business.

Those underground operations will blow your mouth and tastebuds away.

[attran99]

We found ourselves in Florida and saw this at CityWalk Orlando…

The one with the slice of cake is the Birthday Celebration milkshake and the chocolate chip cookie one is a cookie milkshake. We actually tried the chocolate hazelnut and the Key Lime pie shakes…and while they were outrageous, they weren’t bad for a tourist trap-kind-of-place.

[President_Mochi]

@J_L

Matcha soft serve on a waffle cone, at Matcha Cha (the new kid on the block on Sawtelle)…

Yeah boiiiii. Thought the matcha/strawberry combo worked well. They also gave us some tea samples when we were there. Really nice people. Hope they make it.

[J_L]

Flavor Flav in da house…

[Dommy]

@President_Mochi

Thought the matcha/strawberry combo worked well.

I think I’ll try that next time… We went in a little Soft Serve Binge this weekend and got the Matcha soft serve and it was great but INTENSE. You HAVE to like Macha. I now think that the Strawberry will help temper yet compliment…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhU9qqelqk2/

On the clear other side of town, Mr. Softee is in Old Town Camarillo and is not messing around when it comes to the Dippy Cone crown…

[J_L]

Lower East Side Breakfast: Wexler’s salmon pastrami, everything croissant, arugula, tomato… From Rose Cafe (Venice)

[Chowseeker1999]

Nice @J_L. You didn’t order anything else at Rose? If you get a chance, their handmade pastas are really good.

[wienermobile]

Tommy’s on Rampart

[Gr8pimpin]

Tacos Tu Madre

Carnitas Taco - Slow roasted pulled pork, crispy onion, sour cream, habanero, avocado tomatillo salsa.
Carne Asada Taco - With pico de gallo, avocadi tomatillo salsa, chili lime queso fresco.

Pastor Taco - Achiote marinated pork, grilled onion, grilled pineapple.
Grilled Fish Taco - Grilled cod, street corn relish, avocado, pickled onion, citrus kale slaw
Crispy Shrimp Taco - Buttermilk fried shrimp, sweet and sour marinade, sesame seeds, seaweed flakes, chipotle aioli, chives

Buttermilk Chicken Breakfast Taco - Buttermilk fried chicken (topped with spicy honey) , Scrambled eggs, American cheese and creamy tomatillo salsa.

Street Corn - Sauteed sweet corn, chili lime queso fresco, tajin, lime, chipotle aioli and cilantro.

[Chowseeker1999]

Nice @Gr8pimpin. How was the meal overall? What were your favs?

[Gr8pimpin]

Meal was good!

Funny when you go to these places where there are small eats, you spend a deceptively large amount of money compared to the place where you get the taco combo LOL.

My favorites had to be the grilled fish with kale and, can’t believe I’m going to say this, the al pastor.

They were out of one of the green salsas and ran out of shredded braised brisket which was my first choice for the breakfast tacos.

The buttermilk chicken was good but I think I’d do the burrito.

The salsa verde on the side had too much salt but I did a couple of shots anyway (yes, I shoot my salsas)

Tortillas were great. Corn was quite tasty too, though I’m more into it on the cob.

I REALLY should have gotten the breakfast burrito. Damn… tots.

[TheCookie]

I the Everson Royce Burger! Polished off the French Fries with ketchup and… mayo! So bummed we didn’t get the Biscuits. They were on every table… but ours.

[Haeldaur]

This pic inspired me to get this uber eats’d to me this morning. And it was awesome!

[thechez5]

Takeout from Gus’s Long Beach location. The chicken held up pretty well in the 35-ish mins it took to get back to Torrance.